Revised Dusty Bookshelf Challenge 2025

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

I'm glad you liked The Three Musketeers, Paul. It's great fun ;)

[Susie]

Book 65 for me is Pet by Catherine Chidgey. will need to track it down!

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

Susie wrote: "Book 65 for me is Pet by Catherine Chidgey. will need to track it down!"

I have Pet on my to-read list too, Susie. I hope it's good - fingers crossed!

[Lisa - OwlBeSatReading 🦉📚]

Liz wrote: "Susie wrote: "Book 65 for me is Pet by Catherine Chidgey. will need to track it down!"

I have Pet on my to-read list too, Susie. I hope it's good - fingers crossed!

[bookcover:Pe..."

Catherine Chidgey is brilliant! I recently read Pet and thought it was fabulous! Highly recommended 🙌🏻

[Susie]

Finished Pet, and I agree Lisa, it's a fabulous book!

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

Susie wrote: "Finished Pet, and I agree Lisa, it's a fabulous book!"

Great, I'll have to bump it up my to read list...

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

Looking forward to November, I've spun the wheel and can tell you that the book we'll be reading is Number 51 on your to-read list/shelf.

So if you have fewer that 50 books on your list, you can choose no 5 or no 1.

I checked my list and #51 on mine is Burmese Days by George Orwell.

I remember adding it as I was (and still am) doing the Around the World Challenge, and needed a book for Burma/Myanmar. It's George Orwell, so it should be good (fingers crossed...)

What's 51 on your list/dusty bookshelf?

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "Looking forward to November, I've spun the wheel and can tell you that the book we'll be reading is Number 51 on your to-read list/shelf.

So if you have fewer that 50 books on your list, you can ..."

Burmese Days is an excellent story. I've read a couple of times. I hope you find it interesting.

[Bill]

#51 on my Dusty Bookshelf is Trial by Fire by Frances Fyfield

[Paul]

Hmm, Sophies Choice by William Styron

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

Sophies Choice is on my list somewhere too. It's a big chunky book if I recall. That'll keep you busy, Paul ;)

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

I'm making a start on Burmese Days....

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

I just finished Burmese Days yesterday. Very good, although typically of George Orwell, not a happy ending...

Apparently, Orwell channelled his very negative, lonely, experience as a police officer in Burma (present day Myanmar) into what would become this, his first novel. It's full of racism, snobbery, corruption, drunkenness (gin before breakfast anyone?) and all the very worst of the British Raj. The writing is brilliant, the character's despicable.

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "I just finished Burmese Days yesterday. Very good, although typically of George Orwell, not a happy ending...

Apparently, Orwell channelled his very negative, lonely, experience as..."

I've read it a couple of times. What you said.

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

If you like to be prepared in advance, I have just spun the wheel for December....And the number is... (drumroll please)....

Number 2

So what's number 2 on your to-read list/dusty bookshelf?

I've just checked my physical shelves and the second book along is I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, which I picked up in a charity shop a while ago and yes, it is dusty! I don't normally read true crime, so let's see how this goes...

[Paul]

Number 2 for me is The Stranger by Albert Camus

[Bill]

Glass Houses by Jane Haddam

[Susie]

Just started my no. 51 for November The Second Chance Convenience Store by Kim Ho-yeon https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

Paul wrote: "Number 2 for me is The Stranger by Albert Camus"

Another modern classic! I wasn't a fan when I read it several years ago, I wonder if I'd feel the same way if I read it now. (I'm a bit more jaded!) Love to know what you think of it.

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

I've just started I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer. True Crime is not normally my thing. I think the only other book in this category that I've read is In Cold Blood, which was very good.

My main resistance is that I feel uncomfortable that one person's tragedy becomes another person's entertainment, but this one has had excellent reviews and is meant to cover it's subject matter sensitively. Plus, I like to read broadly, so I'm giving it a go. Fingers crossed...

[Liz, Your Friendly Moderator]

I finished I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer a few days ago.

For once I prioritised my dusty read and got this one done at the start of the month!

I could appreciate the work that went into this book, and true crime aficionados praise it highly, but it really wasn't my cup of tea. Although handled sensitively, it makes for grim reading.